Soap vs Rookie
by ColdCupoJoe
Summary: Second battle I've written, this time between Captain Soap MacTavish (assumingly right before MW2) and Rookie (post-Halo ODST). These two characters were pivotal in growing up for me, and it was difficult to pit these two badasses against each other, but here it is! A little longer than I would've liked, but hopefully y'all will enjoy.


Soap vs Rookie

The remains of the city of New Mombassa stood like empty skeletons on the skyline. Half of the city remained melted from the alien energy attacks, the aftermath of the Covenant's orbital plasma glassing. Rookie was there months ago, but he relived the one long night in the New Mombassa streets in his nightmares.

And now he stood there looking at the city once more from the ODST drop ship for "one last mission". Rookie knew it would never be the last mission, but he also knew he couldn't say no when Sergeant Major Johnson asked for him specifically to head this mission. The same Sergeant Major Johnson who fought side by side with the Master Chief, someone who the Rookie certainly didn't want to let down.

Although Rookie had outgrown the codename that Alpha-Nine had so lovingly given him, he kept ahold of his moniker and fortified his authority through his own actions, although his men rarely needed the reinforcement. His reputation had carried him far enough.

His men lined up in salute as he passed by on his way to his pod. Rookie spared no words re-explaining the mission, his men had been hammered with the details in the video briefing during the flight to the orbital frigate as well as the typed-up manifest, filled with maps of the city, locations of weapons caches for resupply, and a 3x5 picture of their target VIP. The bulbous mass in the picture looked more like a fleshy cloud than the Covenant forces the men had been used to fighting, its long purple neck sticking out with a six-eyed, turtle-like head staring blankly, two tentacles flanking the creature's cranium. While the rest of the men didn't understand why Johnson wanted a full ODST squad to rescue such a dopey looking creature, Rookie knew these Engineers were akin to biological supercomputers with data to finally cripple the Covenant's forces for good. Simple extraction, wipe up any remaining Covenant and secure the asset, easy in and out.

The red light flashed within the dropship as the rest of the ODSTs hustled to their pods, grabbing their guns from the rack on their way. The M7S Submachine Gun was a standard UNSC submachine gun, the weapon of choice when it came to close quarters and discretion, along with the accompanying M6C/SOCOM silenced pistol. The men loaded into their deployment pods and strapped in for the drop.

[In the ruins of New Mombassa]

Task Force 141 were no strangers to dangerous missions, but this mission truly put Soap MacTavish out of his element. The Scottish Captain rounded the corner of a skyscraper, still massive despite the upper half being seemingly ripped from existence, leaving the top of the remains pointing jaggedly into the sky with iron beams and sparking disconnected wires. The technology that seemed to run through every corner of this city was incredibly advanced, and corpses of non-humans were mixed with those of both soldiers and civilians. Soap couldn't even maintain radio contact with his superiors, as entering the city proved to be a dark-zone for their communication systems. The radio situation had been in the briefing, of course, but they had neglected to inform him or his crew about the clear alien threat that had terrorized this city.

Soap motioned for his men to follow, as the other three operatives stepped out from the shadows, rifles at the ready. Lightning cracked in the sky, briefly illuminating the streets as a rainstorm rolled in, soaking the Task Force as they creeped forward. The crew moved in silence, their footsteps muffled by the soft patter of rain on pavement as they came upon a wide metal door blocking the streets, presumably used to send the city into lockdown upon invasion. The giant door only served to seal the residents' fates and prevent their exodus from the city.

"Hazard, get this door open," Soap whispered to one of his men. Hazard stepped forward and removed a panel next to the door's operating controls, examining the wires and conduits.

"It'll be a hot minute," Hazard reported, wiping the accumulating rain from his brow.

Just then, a loud crash was heard from the other side of the gate. Soap looked upwards to see what looked like three more man-sized meteors falling to earth, resulting in three more crashes on the other side of the barrier.

"Second invasion force?" one of the other men asked the commanding officer, nervously handling his rifle.

"Could just be a mop up crew," Soap responded, pulling down his night vision goggles. "Treat anything on the other side of that door as hostile. Let's show them how the 141 does business."

[Other side of the door, 90 seconds prior, 1500m up]

"Four heat signatures below" one of the ODST recruits reported, his voice echoing through all of the drop pods' radios.

Rookie glanced at the map display within his pod, showing the four glowing dots approaching a street gate. There weren't supposed to be any Covenant left in this sector, but he knew for certain all civilians were either evacuated or annihilated. He couldn't take any chances.

"Guns up, ready for anything," Rookie declared, adjusting his pod's trajectory to land on the street opposite of the door. If they were hostile, he didn't want to give them the chance to shoot them like fish in literal barrels.

His men followed suit in their trajectory as they all crashed into the street, the pavement and concrete spider-webbing beneath the impact. The large black pods hissed pressurized gas as their doors popped off with a satisfying " _thunk"_ and the troopers rushed out, guns already shouldered and aimed at the door as they flanked each side of the street.

The ODSTs black armor blended with the shadows, only able to spot each other with their advanced low-light vision enhanced helmets. Rookie stood behind one of the new recruits, designation Stoney, who fidgeted with his submachine gun in impatience. Rookie extended a hand to Stoney's shoulder in comfort, easing the private's nerves.

"How do we know these guys aren't friendlies?" a recruit from the other side of the street called over comms.

Before anyone could respond, however, the door slid open and all troopers snapped to attention, but there wasn't anything on the other side of the door. Rookie motioned with his hand for the other two troopers to investigate while he and Stoney covered them from the rear.

" _CAUTION: HITCHHIKERS MAY BE WANTED CRIMINALS"_ blared the city's PA system, an occurrence well known by the Rookie as New Mombassa's Superintendent had helped him survive being stranded in the city before with its many cameras and technological access throughout the city's mainframe. Rookie pointed up, acknowledging the loud announcement, and prepared himself for the worst.

Two ODSTs walked forward, submachine guns raised, and passed through the threshold. The patter of rain was growing louder, but found no hostiles as they silently stepped through the streets.

"Clear left," one of the ODSTs called out, designation Bear. Bear's sensors continually scanned each darkened alley and balcony above, but everything was still apart from the falling rain. Rookie and Stoney followed the two scouts about twenty feet behind, keeping their heads on a swivel. The other scout, Juliet, held up her fist, before running to the alley entrance on the right.

"Contact?" Rookie whispered as the rest of the squad lined up behind her hugging the wall. She nodded, held up two fingers, and then motioned toward the back of the alley. Rookie pointed to Stoney and motioned for him to scout it out. Stoney nodded in compliance and creeped forward, submachine gun at the ready.

[]

"He saw you, now pull back," the Task Force captain called over the radio, watching Merlin and Fish from the safety of an apartment rooftop four stories above. Soap MacTavish pulled his night-vision goggles over his eyes, illuminating the alleyway in a bright green light. Merlin raised a thumbs-up and tapped Fish on the shoulder before they both turned and retreated deeper into the alley.

Just as Soap predicted, the mysterious troopers in black armor took the bait. One soldier crept forward, Soap flipped up his night vision goggles to aim down sights with his thermal sighted ACR. To Soap's surprise, however, the enigmatic soldier was not highlighted by his scope.

"Damn, they have some way to block their thermals," Soap called over his coms. "Detach thermals and get ready to go to plan B."

Soap looked over at Hazard on the rooftop on the other side of the alley to receive the thumbs-up confirmation. The captain then unscrewed the scope from his rifle and aimed down the iron sights to get a better view of the trooper closing in on his two men in the alley.

"Sir, we're running out of room down here," Merlin called over the radio, him and Fish running into a large brick wall at the end of the alley.

"Roger that, keep a low profile and get ready to run like hell," Soap radioed back, eyeing Hazard from across the way. Hazard pulled out a palm-sized detonator and waited for his captain's mark. The trooper in the alley inched forward, closing in on the isolated Task Force members, but didn't notice the flashing red C4 plastic explosives around the corner of the next box he was about to pass. Soap held up three fingers, and sequentially pulled them down in synch with the dark trooper's steps. On a clenched fist, Hazard squeezed the C4 detonator.

[Alley Entrance]

An explosion rocked the alleyway, sending smoke and debris flying out of the narrow entrance and surrounding Rookie's team. Rookie rushed into the alley, his vision obscured by the dust cloud.

"Stoney come in!" Rookie called, but with no response. He rushed through the alley with his two compatriots on his tail, frantically looking for his missing trooper. Moving toward the origin of the explosion, Rookie found Stoney lodged into the opposite brick wall, flung by the explosion and clearly dead.

As he reached for Stoney's dog tags gunfire erupted from the alley's dead end, forcing Rookie and the others to take cover behind some still intact boxes.

"Bear, lay down suppressing fire," Rookie told his recruit as he pulled the pins on one of his grenades and lobbing it over their cover. Bear nodded in agreement, waited for the explosion of the grenade, and then popped over their cover and began peppering the darkness of the alley with his submachine gun.

Rookie tapped Bear on the shoulder as he passed behind him, advancing through the alley toward the opposing gunfire under the cover fire. He ducked and weaved to avoid the blind-firing enemy at the end of the alley, the few bullets that found him ricocheting off of his armor. Rounding the corner of the large box the soldiers were using for cover, Rookie saw the surprise and fear in the two soldiers' eyes. He held his fire long enough to see one of the soldiers swing his rifle towards the ODST, but was stopped as Rookie squeezed the trigger, unloading three rounds into the soldier's chest.

The other soldier wasn't phased by his comrade's death and jumped onto Rookie with his knife, stabbing between the shoulder plating of the trooper and piercing the elastic undersuit. Rookie grunted in pain as he slammed the butt of his gun into the soldier, sending the man standing, only to be shot in the head by the ODST backup.

Rookie stood up, seeing Bear giving the thumbs up and he could only imagine the ear-to-ear grin beneath his helmet. He knew he would be hearing about this for weeks to come.

Another shot rang out, from the rooftop this time, as a sniper bullet smashed through Bear's face-mask, puncturing straight through and throwing the trooper to the ground, dead. Rookie's eyes widened as he saw his trooper fall and immediately ran for the nearest door, an apartment complex flanking the alley. Juliet ran for the opposite side of the alley, but could still see Rookie through the opposing doorways.

"Move up, take out the snipers," Rookie called over the radio, gunfire still raining down from the rooftops. Juliet nodded in agreement before turning around and slipping into the interior darkness of the complex.

[Rooftop]

"Merlin and Fish are down!" Hazard called out over the radio. Soap could see the struggle in the bottom of the alley, and it pained him to see his men fall to these advanced troopers, but clenched his fist as he held his fire, he couldn't risk blowing this position without a clear line of sight on any hostiles. His eyes scanned the alley until he saw one of the sick bastards stand and give a thumbs up to the one who charged his men. MacTavish raised his sniper without thought, lined up the sights, and sent a shot through their facemask.

The trooper crumpled like a bag of wet clothes, and Hazard on the opposite rooftop began to rain fire down as well. The troopers, however, were too well camouflaged in the darkened alley, and they soon lost the hostiles under the hail of gunfire.

"Hazard, watch your six, I lost visual on them." Soap called over comms, folding the bipod on his sniper back and setting it on the ground, eyeing all ways these troopers could reach him. He saw a fire escape on the eastern side of the roof, and a stairwell popping up in the middle.

"Roger that Captain," Hazard called back, and Soap could see him examining his situation as well.

Soap opened a pouch on the back of his belt and unraveled the wiring of a claymore explosive. He stood the explosive device upright, its twin red tripwire lasers sticking out toward the top of the fire escape.

Minutes pass, and only the sound of rain patter filled the rooftop. Captain MacTavish posted himself at the door of the roof-access stairwell, nervously readjusting his grip on his ACR. These troopers couldn't be invisible to thermals and silent as shadows, could they?

Gunfire erupted from the opposite rooftop, breaking Soap's concentration for a split second as he heard Hazard scream in pain over comms.

"Hazard!" Rookie called out, leaving his stairwell position to open fire on the opposite roof. His rifle lit up the roofs, illuminating the trooper standing over Hazard's bleeding corpse. The trooper looked toward the incoming fire, just to be hit in the shoulder between their armor plating, catching them by surprise.

Soap emptied his mag as the wounded trooper ran to the stairwell of the opposite roof. He furiously slammed a new magazine into his gun and turned just in time to see another trooper topping the fire escape. Their helmet, however, caught one of the tripwire lasers of the planted claymore.

One quick beep was all the warning the trooper received before an explosion rocked the rooftop, sending the trooper as well as the top half of the fire escape crashing down to the alley below.

Soap ran to the edge of the rooftop and looked below, seeing the dark armored trooper laying motionless, two posts of rebar sticking from their chest. MacTavish looked once more to the other rooftop and, revenge in his eyes, descended the stairwell to face down his foe.

[Opposite Rooftop]

Rookie slumped against the stairwell in the middle of the rooftop, putting the small structure between himself and the shooter. He compressed his left shoulder with his hand, feeling the blood seep through his undersuit, his only solace knowing that Juliet was flanking him as Rookie rested.

No sooner did Rookie finish his thought did an explosion rock the two buildings, and Rookie knew he was all alone.

" _ATTENTION PARTY OF ONE,_ " the Superintendent AI called through the alleyway loud enough for Rookie to hear, " _IN CASE OF FIRE, USE STAIRS_."

Rookie nodded towards the nearest camera used by the Superintendent and hoisted himself onto his feet. His suit had already self-dispensed medical biofoam into his shoulder wound, ceasing the bleeding, but it he still had to power through the pain just to dislodge his pistol from his belt. Kneeling in front of the door, Rookie checked the magazine of his M6S pistol. Only five rounds left. It would have to do.

The trooper adjusted the heads up display on his helmet to enhance auditory sensory readings as he waited patiently for the soldier to show. It didn't take long before he heard the _thunk_ -ing of combat boots on the metal staircase, slowly getting louder.

The door flung open as Soap kicked it outwards, met by three quick shots of Rookie's pistol. Soap ducked and weaved, but still caught one shot to the upper chest, causing him to drop his rifle. The soldier grunted in pain, but didn't stop his charge as he spear-tackled into Rookie, pinning him to the ground and sending his pistol sliding off the edge of the roof.

The two men grappled with each other, neither gaining the edge until Rookie was able to land a right hook to the soldier's jaw, sending him rolling. Soap slowly rose, his breathing labored from his wound, but was able to compose himself enough to pull an ice pick from his belt and twirl it menacingly. Rookie grabbed for his knife and prepared for the melee, the adrenaline completely nulling the pain in his arm.

Soap lunged first, swinging the ice pick down, but Rookie was able to sidestep the soldier, swiping at the soldier and cutting through the padded clothing on his shoulder.

Soap gritted his teeth as he looked at his shoulder, the blade barely nicking his flesh. He grabbed for the throwing knife on his chest pocket with his offhand and threw it at Rookie, catching the trooper in the thigh. MacTavish took this advantage to locate his ACR, flung onto the edge of the rooftop, and he made a bolt for the gun. Rookie saw where the soldier's eyesight floated to and, without missing a beat, pulled the knife from his leg and hurled it at Soap's back.

Soap had just reached his rifle when a piercing pain struck him in the middle of his back, stopping him in his tracks. He reached behind him, but the blade stuck where his hands couldn't find it. Soap turned slowly, his eyes wide, as blood began to trickle out of his mouth.

Rookie limped toward the captain, who had fallen to his knees, and kicked the rifle out of his reach. He laid one hand on the soldier's shoulder in a sign of respect as Soap raised his brow to look the trooper in his opaque mask.

"I'm… coming back… Price…" Soap gasped his last breaths as he slumped to the ground in front of the ODST. Rookie closed Soap's eyes and grabbed his dog tags before standing.

Once more, he was alone in New Mombassa.

Winner: Rookie


End file.
